Boeing rolled out 707 prototype 60 years ago

AUBREY COHE, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By AUBREY COHEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Updated 6:56 am, Thursday, May 15, 2014

Boeing rolls out the Model 367-80 on May 14, 1954, in Renton. The jet, which became known as the Dash 80, was the prototype for the 707 airliner and KC-135 aerial refueling tanker.
Photo: Museum Of History And Industry

Boeing rolls out the Model 367-80 on May 14, 1954, in Renton. The...

Boeing chose the designation Model 367-80 to disguise the jet as an improved version of the C-97 Stratofreighter, shown here in 1951.
Photo: P-I File

Boeing chose the designation Model 367-80 to disguise the jet as an...

The Dash 80 conducts its first flight, on July 15, 1954, with pilot Tex Johnston and co-pilot R.L. Loesch.
Photo: The Boeing Co.

The Dash 80 conducts its first flight, on July 15, 1954, with pilot...

Test pilots Tex Johnston and R.L. Loesch, in circle at right, are surrounded by reporters, photographers and well-wishers at Boeing Field on July 15, 1954, after completing the first flight of the Dash 80.

The KC-135 Stratotanker "City of Renton" takes off from renton on its maiden flight on Aug. 31, 1956.
Photo: Keystone, Getty Images

The KC-135 Stratotanker "City of Renton" takes off from renton on...

The first U.S. Air Force KC-135 aerial refueling tanker, the "City of Renton," takes off from Renton Field.
Photo: The Boeing Co.

The first U.S. Air Force KC-135 aerial refueling tanker, the "City...

Eight U.S. Air Force F-105 Thunderchiefs line up to refuel from a KC-135 on their way to targets in North Vietnam in December 1965.
Photo: Anonymous, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Eight U.S. Air Force F-105 Thunderchiefs line up to refuel from a...

As for the Boeing Dash 80 prototype, it served 18 years as a flying test laboratory before being was turned over to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in May 1972. Here, the Dash 80 lands in Oakland, California, on Dec. 12, 1965.
Photo: NASA/Wikimedia Commons

As for the Boeing Dash 80 prototype, it served 18 years as a flying...

The Smithsonian parked the Dash 80 in the Arizona desert for 18 years. In May 1990, under an arrangement with the Smithsonian, Boeing returned the airplane to Seattle for full restoration.
Photo: Jim Coley/Wikimedia Commons

The Smithsonian parked the Dash 80 in the Arizona desert for 18...

The refurbished Dash 80 made a special fly-over of the five Boeing facilities in the Puget Sound area on July 15, 1991, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of The Boeing Company and the 37th anniversary of its own first flight. Here, the jet passes over the Olympic Peninsula.
Photo: Joe Parke/Wikimedia Commons

Boeing had no orders lined up for its proposed new jetliner when its board of directors agreed to pour $16 million into development in 1952, a week after first flight of the company's B-52 swept-wing bomber.

These days, $16 million isn't much to a company like Boeing. But that was two-thirds of its net profits from the post-war years.

The order total remained at zero on May 14, 1954, when Boeing rolled the Model 367-80 out of its Renton, Wash., plant. The name was intended to disguise the airplane as merely an improved version of the C-97 Stratofreighter.

The "Dash 80," as it came to be known, was the prototype for the 707 jetliner, which dominated the early jet age, and the KC-135 Stratotanker, which is still serving the U.S. Air Force.

William Boeing, then 72, returned to Boeing for the Dash 80 rollout. His wife, Bertha, christened the jet with champagne, and the Renton High School band played the Air Force theme. The Dash 80 first flew on July 15, 1954, coinciding with Boeing's 38th anniversary.

Boeing first aimed to sell the jet as a military tanker-transport, so the Dash 80 had few windows, no seats and two large cargo doors. The Air Force ordered 29 KC-135 Stratotankers a week after the prototype's first flight.

Pan American World Airways placed the first 707 order, for 20 of the jets, on Oct. 14, 1955. But it also ordered 25 competing Douglas DC-8s.

Boeing delivered the first 707 on Aug. 15, 1958, and 1,009 more after that. It delivered 732 KC-135 Stratotankers.

Boeing kept the Dash 80 as a test aircraft. It flew with a fifth engine mounted in the rear to test installation feasibility for the three-engine 727 and with three different types of engines at the same time. It carried out tests on engine thrust reversers and sound suppressers, engine icing conditions, air conditioners, wing flap and slat modifications, radar, paints, landing gear and steep approaches designed to reduce noise near airports.

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum acquired the Dash 80 in 1972, but then parked it in the Arizona desert for 18 years. In May 1990, under an arrangement with the Smithsonian, Boeing returned the airplane to Seattle for full restoration.

In August 2003, it flew to its new home on permanent display at the Air and Space Museum's new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, near Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport.

Click through the gallery above to see a visual history of the Dash 80, the 707 and the KC-135.